UK based manufacturer Graham Slee is a name well known in audio circles and Graham has recently been in touch with Hifi Pig to tell us about an interesting concept the company has hatched, to help their current customers and attract new ones. Whilst this isn’t news per se; it is certainly new to us and we thought it would be interesting for Hifi Pig’s readers.

The Owners Club Forum is basically a forum in support of the Graham Slee brand.  Graham wanted the forum to be a relaxed and respectful place for owners of his products to engage with himself and other owners.  The forum is used to educate and advise, sending out detailed information about Graham Slee products and announcing new products.  Market research is another key element as is sharing reviews of the products.  There is also DIY information demonstrating that Graham really knows his stuff when it comes to electronic design.  Non owners are welcome to join as they can then try out products through the loaners program and hopefully go on to be owners!  Members are signed up manually so that spammers are kept out and there is also a loyalty program that rewards active contributors to the site, the more you post the better discount you get.

The Loaners Program is part of the forum.  Graham has found volunteers to act as organisers of the program in the UK and Western Europe, the USA, Australia and Canada.  These volunteers are sent the full range of Graham Slee products to keep in their ‘toy Cupboard’.  The program is designed to be like a lending library so that people can try before they buy rather then buying a product cold, trying it and then returning it to try something else.  Graham argues that while the old way of doing things is completely within the consumer’s rights it is not the most efficient way of doing things, with the need to repackage items to then be resold as used items having an environmental impact. With the Loaner Program members contact the organiser for their region through the forum to put in their loan requests and then just pay for the item(s) to be shipped to them.  The general loan period is 2 weeks, after which the loaner sends the item back to their regional organiser and, if they are happy with the product, they can submit a review and of course go on to buy their own if they so wish.

At Hifi Pig we think that this is a great idea and wish Graham Slee and his team every success.